Rand: Advanced Technology Makes ‘1984’-Type Surveillance Possible

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has been a vocal critic of the National Security Agency’s spying programs, said privacy rights are even more important in an era in which advances in technology have made an all-seeing totalitarian state like the one depicted in 1984 possible.

“I remember when I first read 1984 and I thought, ‘Well that could never happen because we didn’t have the technology,'” Paul said of George Orwell’s book on Tuesday during an appearance on Breitbart News’ broadcast of the Exempt America Rally. “But now we do have the technology.”

Paul said the “advanced technology makes it more important to protect” the privacy rights of Americans.

Speaking to Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, Paul also emphasized that young people who are skewing more libertarian in their beliefs want the freedom to read news on the internet without the government knowing what publications they are reading and assurances that their phone calls are not being traced. He said “liberty principles” attract a “large range” of people, including African-Americans who may be against a big government they believe unfairly and disproportionately incarcerates them and Japanese-Americans who have learned the horrors of internment camps.

He said though Republicans are “very good at defending the Second Amendment,” other amendments–like the first and the fourth–needed to be defended for the Bill of Rights to be preserved.

Ultimately, Paul said the Tea Party movement has been about “relearning” and the “resurgence” of the constitution.